Sorry, but I directly address the political status of the USA by logging on the the Washington Post and ranting vehimently there. They seem to tolerate what I have to say.
I do have feelings, opinions, and passions on this topic that are unwanted in the Parallax Forums. But as the Irish say, "Keep up the good fight."
And this appears to be the FCC making its own rules, not Congress making laws.
From what I read elsewhere, the USA will retire 2G cellular phone systems in 2016 along with several other countries and many of those devices are automatic SMS for security services. Maybe some of the issues are to clear the air for new wireless security networks, but it all seems a bit draconian with a broader mandate.
The Department of Treasury already is pushing me to use only Windows or OSx to file an annual on-line filling and refuses to allow me to file by regsitered mail. So this make actually begins to be a shut out of Linux for some other secure and propriatary form of UNIX. Adobe is doing something with Flash and Reader that seems to be toward a US government agenda, and Linux is unsupported for both.
I could live without Wifi and without Linux, but I sure would have a few resentments about all this if I am forced into an OS that constantly tries to sell me software I don't want or need.
Yep, what they want to do, regulate power and frequency, sounds quite reasonable. Nobody should be blasting out loudly on frequencies they should not be using.
How to control that is a delicate issue.
For example: Does my DLINK WIFI router running OpenWRT have the capability to modify power and frequency from programs running under it's Linux based operating system? Perhaps programs I have written and installed myself.
Or is there some binary blob of firmware that has to be loaded to the WIFI chip? That is not really a Linux program but could perhaps be modified my me if I knew how?
None of this would be an issue if the firmware in the actual WIFI device was actually in PROM and effectively a fixed part of the hardware. Like every other transistor in the device.
But as it may not be, it may be that binary blob my OS loads to the WIFI device which can be can be hacked by me, then the only way to lock it down is to outlaw my using OpenWRT on my router. DLINK would have to lock down their router products to comply.
As the article you linked to states, it's all in the wording of the regulation.
Yep, what they want to do, regulate power and frequency, sounds quite reasonable. Nobody should be blasting out loudly on frequencies they should not be using.
The problem is.. that this (power and frequency, and more) is already regulated. All of that should already be covered by existing regulations. Anything the consumer might do to modify power and frequencies outside the legal range is already prohibited. So the motive for adding more regulations appears to be something else.
Comments
I do have feelings, opinions, and passions on this topic that are unwanted in the Parallax Forums. But as the Irish say, "Keep up the good fight."
Here is a link to the SAVE WIFI info http://archive.is/tGCkU
And this appears to be the FCC making its own rules, not Congress making laws.
From what I read elsewhere, the USA will retire 2G cellular phone systems in 2016 along with several other countries and many of those devices are automatic SMS for security services. Maybe some of the issues are to clear the air for new wireless security networks, but it all seems a bit draconian with a broader mandate.
The Department of Treasury already is pushing me to use only Windows or OSx to file an annual on-line filling and refuses to allow me to file by regsitered mail. So this make actually begins to be a shut out of Linux for some other secure and propriatary form of UNIX. Adobe is doing something with Flash and Reader that seems to be toward a US government agenda, and Linux is unsupported for both.
I could live without Wifi and without Linux, but I sure would have a few resentments about all this if I am forced into an OS that constantly tries to sell me software I don't want or need.
FCC accused of locking down Wi-Fi routers, but the truth is a bit murkier
Yep, what they want to do, regulate power and frequency, sounds quite reasonable. Nobody should be blasting out loudly on frequencies they should not be using.
How to control that is a delicate issue.
For example: Does my DLINK WIFI router running OpenWRT have the capability to modify power and frequency from programs running under it's Linux based operating system? Perhaps programs I have written and installed myself.
Or is there some binary blob of firmware that has to be loaded to the WIFI chip? That is not really a Linux program but could perhaps be modified my me if I knew how?
None of this would be an issue if the firmware in the actual WIFI device was actually in PROM and effectively a fixed part of the hardware. Like every other transistor in the device.
But as it may not be, it may be that binary blob my OS loads to the WIFI device which can be can be hacked by me, then the only way to lock it down is to outlaw my using OpenWRT on my router. DLINK would have to lock down their router products to comply.
As the article you linked to states, it's all in the wording of the regulation.
I'm still convinced it won't work.